Brief Report Open Access
Volume 5 | Issue 1 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.33696/AIDS.5.045
STI Characterization in Two U.S. Veterans Health Administration Healthcare Facilities During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic
Omar Harfouch1,*, Emily Comstock2, Katherine Sittig1, Rohit Talwani1,2, Roman Kaplan3, Debra Benator4, Heather Rivasplata4, Eleanor Wilson1,2
- 1Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
- 2Section of Infectious Diseases, Baltimore VA Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
- 3Department of Pharmacy, Baltimore VA Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
- 4Section of Infectious Diseases, Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Washington DC, USA
Corresponding Author
Omar Harfouch, OHarfouch@ihv.umaryland.edu
Received Date: September 14, 2023
Accepted Date: October 24, 2023
Harfouch O, Comstock E, Sittig K, Talwani R, Kaplan R, Benator D, et al. STI Characterization in Two U.S. Veterans Health Administration Healthcare Facilities During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic. J AIDS HIV Treat. 2023;5(1):41-45.
Copyright: © 2023 Harfouch O, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
This retrospective chart review of Veterans at the Maryland and Washington, D.C. VA Medical Centers showed that STI positivity ratios increased in 2020 (2018-2020). The disparity in STI risk between Black and White Veterans widened in 2020, highlighting the need for targeted evidence-based STI prevention following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Keywords
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), COVID-19, Veterans, Health equity, HIV prevention
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